Did Atlanta’s Weather Warnings Come Early Enough?

NBC News’ Al Roker, examines the city’s winter weather timeline, concluding there was plenty of time to make adjustments for snow removal in Atlanta.

Weather

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>for more on this storm, we're joined in the studio by
al roker
, al, i'm thinking we worry about terrorists, this is 2.6 inches of snow, and the largest,
busiest airport
in the world. who is telling the truth here? the public officials who say the
weather models
were different, or the officials that say it was there all along?

>> reporter: brian, i'm showing you the
time line
and you and folks at home can decide. this is the
winter storm warning
issued just south of
atlanta
. but
early in the morning
at 4:53, the
atlanta metro area
added a
storm warning
by the
national weather service
. now, move ahead and now we're into
atlanta
's
metro area
, upgraded to a
winter weather advisory
monday evening. tuesday night, overnight tuesday,
3:38 a.m
.,
winter weather advisory
, upgraded to warning. a full eight hours before the snow started. and as you watch on the radar you will see it move in and engulf
atlanta
. 2.6 inches, there was plenty of time to make those adjustments for any kind of
snow removal
. so you decide. but the good news is, temperatures are going to start to moderate, so there will be a natural melting of all of that ice. the
polar vortex
moves to the north, the
jet stream
becomes zonal, warmer weather coming in from the pacific. so that is good news. overnight, look for a low of 26 degrees, tomorrow's high, the good news here up to 42 degrees, part of the general warming trend by friday.
atlanta
will see a high of 55 degrees, and temperatures warming up throughout the region on into new england. and into parts of the
upper midwest
. but brian, i think there was plenty of time for this to be taken care of.

>>and a lot of truth, a lot of southern cities just can't keep the trucks and equipment on the payroll for
snow removal
all year long.
al roker
in the studio, thank you.